Thoughts about plants, games, King Arthur, and direct eye contact on public transportation.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Origins of Fungus

Hey, Benjamin here. In a new and surprisingly brief search for knowledge, I wondered today where the word 'fungus' came from. It comes from the Latin 'fungus' which means 'mushroom'. I don't really know what else I expected.

Ah, but where did the word 'mushroom' come from? Funnily enough, also Latin, by way of French. The Latin word 'mussirio' apparently referred to a specific sort of mushroom. If this is depressing for anyone, a list of English words that didn't come from Latin can be found here.